31 Day Nail Art Challenge | Day 2: Orange

I know, I know, I haven't been as on top of this as I wanted to be. I just haven't had as much free time lately, but I'm hoping I can get back to at least 1 of these a week. They're REALLY fun and kinda relaxing!

This week's color was "Orange", and since I have fall on the mind I figured that was the best way to go.
The gradient nails are an Orange Cream Dream/Backstage Beauty/Sweet Chocolate fade topped with a thin layer of Close Your Fingers and Cross Your Eyes. The nail on the far left consists of the same colors and I was attempting to hand paint little leaves falling across the nail. However, both my fiancée and our roommate thought they were little stars, then decided they might be turkey foot prints.

I do, however like how the tree turned out! I just used a small brush to paint the tree with Sweet Chocolate onto the Orange Cream Dream background, and the leaves are Backstage Beauty and Gella in "Lily". I'm happy to say that I didn't have to flash-cure to paint the art; I had a lot of control with Sweet Chocolate :) I also added a couple touches of gold glitter here and there.

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge | Day 1: Red

So, in an effort to help me get my creative juices flowing, I've decided to take on the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge - with a Gelish twist.
I'm not going to do my nails everyday for 31 days, but instead I'm going to do a 3-5 nail set on one of my nail wheels a couple times a week. I love the "every nail is different but similar" look, or when people have 3 nails that are the same and two accent nails, so I really want to practice variety and tying nails together with a theme or color. A couple rules I'm setting for myself are:

1. I have 1 hour from design conception to complete the design. I spend waaaay too much time drawing up designs, looking at nail art pics for ideas, ect. I want to practice creativity under pressure ;)
2. No looking at nails on Instagram, Pinterest, ect for ideas. I want to try to be as original as possible.

I'm hoping this'll be a good chance to improve my skills, learn new ones, and flex my artsy muscles!
Now... on to Day 1!
So my brain went all Valentine's day on this - and I love it! I used Sheek White, Red-Y And Waiting, and Life Of the Party from the Gelish Trends collection. I also added the Matte Top It Off to the white parts of the manicure. The consensus in my house was that at least one of us of at will have these nails next February. ;)

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